Soft tissues, such as, for example, tendons, ligaments, muscles, and the like, are attached to bone throughout the human body. Various injuries and conditions may result in soft tissue separating or tearing away from bone. When this occurs, surgery is required to mechanically reattach the soft tissue to bone to allow the soft tissue to naturally reattach itself to the bone. Surgical repair of soft tissue typically involves passing one or more strands of suture through the soft tissue, applying tension to the suture strands to draw the soft tissue into contact with the bone, and then securing the one or more suture strands ultimately to bone usually via one or more devices implanted in the bone to complete the repair.
A major source of failure of such surgical repairs occurs at the tissue-suture interface and is known as “suture pull-through.” That is, one or more strands of suture may pull through the soft tissue. This can occur because a significant amount of tension is usually applied to the sutures to draw the soft tissue into contact with the bone, and because the individual suture strands, which are strong relative to the soft tissue, typically engage the tissue for only a short length. Suture pull-through is even more likely to occur when the suture strands run parallel to the soft tissue fibers. When pull-through occurs, the repair fails because the soft tissue is either no longer attached to the bone or not in sufficient contact with the bone to promote healing.